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Musings about the virtual and the real world

Next time bring a bubble

Which was not the intent. A few nights ago, our little team logged in and predictably found nothing of note in our constellation. We rolled our C3 hole by forcing a few Orcas through (Studley is excellent at that) and Olari, Studley and I proceed to scan down the new constellation. Between the three of us, we have me in a Arazu (Recon V but never got a kill in this boat, dang it) and a Falcon, Studley in a cloaky Tengu and Olari in his Proteus.

Olari jumps into the nullsec system and finds capsuleers that are online and active. Yes, dear reader, people do actually live in nullsec and not just on Kugu. This is – I believe – the first time in weeks where the nullsec hole is occupied and the locals are obviously blissfully ignorant of their new connection. Olari proceeds to scan down a data site and aims to blow up a local attempting to hack it.

I take my Arazu into C4b, always trailing my Falcon 1 hole behind me. Normally, I take my own Proteus as lead but Studley with his Tengu and Olari with his Proteus provide DPS tonight. I am just tackle ‘n damp. The Falcon is the escape hatch if things go wrong. I am not very good at multiboxing and use the him to keep an eye on my route back. Studley has his Tengu also in the C3a.

The C4b has a couple of towers that are easily scanned down and they are occupied with tasty smorgasbord of haulers. They are piloted and active but seem to be hauling stuff to empire space or their own POS, not customs offices. My little Arazu runs around the large system trying to keep a bearing when my Falcon pilot spots an a new Tengu in C3a. Where did he come from, no new hole is formed, he could be local, he could be from the C3b route but that is unlikely, I had my Falcon there all the time. He likely took the nullsec route and proceeds to drop core probes.

Ok, so now we have a viable target. Olari assumes position a the nullsec hole, I bring my Arazu closer to C4b-C3a and Studley and my Falcon stay on their respective holes. We have this place quite cornered and the range to probes clearly shows that he wants to is scanning down our three WH connections. Nobody (other than me, as part of my paranoia) scans down the hole that they came from so, the hole that is not scanned is the one that the target used to get in. Easy.

The Tengu jumps to my Arazu in C4b. I am decloaked and ready, target him and put scram and damps on him. I am too close (20km) by design, he is either supposed to engage me, in which case he has to move away from the hole and give Studley the opportunity to bring his Tengu in or he jumps straight back into Studley’s arms where he finds himself polarized. He does the latter but we miss the scram and he takes off.

Dang. Now what. My Arazu is now a known entity and I jump him to C3a as well, unlikely that he’d try to come this way again. So far, he can not know where our team lives.

Olari decides to move himself into C3b the idea is to repeat the tactic before but on a different hole.

This sort of works but when the Tengu flees from Olari into our arms, my Arazu is still in warp and my Falcon doesn’t have tackle. But I do notice where the Tengu warps to – the sun. I head after it with the Falcon, moving the Arazu now to the nullsec hole. We think he may just had enough, the sun was an emergency warp out point and he goes back to null in which case, I can catch him there. Or something like that. Things are fast now and we don’t have much time to think.

My Falcon nearly lands on top of the decloaked Tengu who drops probes (again?) and cloaks up. He may not have scanned down our hole home, so that thats where he may head next. But the probes hang in front of my Falcon and Olari helpfully suggests if I could blow them up. That would be funny and so I decloak, approach the probes with due speed and fire up my disco lights, smart bombs, the only damage mod I have on this boat. I could bring in the Arazu but by the time he lands the probes will be gone.

And so my Falcon swims in the nest of probes, lighting up the neighborhood and clearly having an effect on something, I get a suspect timer. But the probes seem indestructible – something learned today.

It is late, our cover is blown and hear Studley’s forehead hitting the keyboard, he snoring loudly. Its time to pack it in and go home. I extract my ships, still hoping he jumps to our home system but to no avail.

It was a good hunt, unsuccessful because we did not have the correct tacklers on the holes. Lesson learned, its no big deal, we can do this again.